Strautmann promotes vertical baler line

German equipment manufacturer Strautmann Umwelttechnik GmbH is marketing its PP 1208 and PP 1208 Plus70 vertical balers models as ideal for the handling of recyclable materials including cardboard, plastic film and foam and resins including polyethylene terephthalate (PET).

The vertical balers can offer a pressing force of from three to 70 metric tons, meaning “the volume of recyclables is reduced to a minimum,” according to Strautmann.

The balers have been at work for more than 20 years in the food retailing, industrial, wholesale and warehouse sectors, Strautmann indicates, and they “optimize the waste management logistics of many companies on a daily basis.”

The small footprint of the PP 1208 and PP 1208 Plus70 means they “can be used almost anywhere,” according to the company. “Placement directly at the location of the material saves time and creates time for the core business,” Strautmann states in a news release, adding, “Employees do not have to go outside in wind and weather to empty the recyclables into a [compactor].”

Other PP 1208 and PP 1208 Plus70 features touted by Strautmann include:

the QuickDoor swing/sliding door, through which material that is outside the chamber can be “simply pushed” into the baling chamber;

integrated plates or clamps inside the press chamber called CircleSystem, designed to reduce the re-expansion of the compressed material;

a hydraulic door lock called HydroClose, designed to prevent unexpected openings of the baler door.

The Max-AI AQC was launched in 2017 by BHS and Nashville, Tennessee-based National Recovery Technologies (NRT). The selection was announced during the Feb. 19 APR Technical Forum, held in conjunction with the Plastics Recycling Conference in Nashville. NRT President Matthias Erdmannsdoerfer presented at the forum, and attendees visited NRT’s headquarters to see live demonstrations of the Max-AI AQC earlier in the day.

“We are honored to have been selected to participate in the APR’s Plastics Recycling Showcase,” Erdmannsdoerfer says. “With more than 40 orders on four continents, the Max-AI AQC has generated tremendous industry excitement and acceptance, and we’re really just getting started. We believe this technology is a breakthrough that will change the way the world recycles and permeate throughout the entire industrial recycling process. As longstanding members of the APR, we appreciate the association’s commitment to innovation and leadership in the development of the plastics recycling industry and its long-term growth.”

Max-AI technology is an artificial intelligence that identifies recyclables and other items for recovery. Max-AI employs multilayered neural networks and a vision system to see and identify objects similar to the way a person does, BHS says. The groundbreaking technology is driving improvements in material recovery facility (MRF) and plastics recovery facility (PRF) design, operational efficiency, recovery and purity, system optimization and maintenance. The Max-AI AQC combines this technology with a robotic sorter to pick and place up to six different material types in one location.

According to BHS and NRT, Max-AI allows MRFs and PRFs to run longer with lower operational expenses, produce more products with increased purity, capture accurate data for reporting and dynamic optimization and adapt over time to the changing material mix without major capital expenses.

The APR recognizes technology that has a positive impact on the ability of a package or container to be recycled. The APR says it promotes the development of the plastics recycling industry by providing leadership for long-term industry growth and vitality.

“We recognize that innovation drives the growth of recycling and is essential to the success of the plastic recycling industry,” the APR says. “The Showcase identifies, highlights and commends the industry’s leading innovations developed by APR member companies that support the growth of plastics recycling. The selections are intended to illustrate what others can do to advance plastics recycling.”

Chinese firm to open plastics recycling operation in Alabama

Shanghai-based Roy Tech Environ Inc. has announced plans to open a plastics recycling facility in Grant, Alabama. The decision to site the plant there was made after the company decided in September 2017 that it needed to build production capacity in the United States to guarantee its factories in China would have an ample amount of recycled plastic.

Matt Arnold, president of the Marshall County Economic Development Council, says Roy Tech Environ has moved quickly to find a location and has secured a building. Arnold says the company will install equipment to allow the facility to grind and shred primarily postindustrial plastic scrap.

Lily Zhang, CEO of Roy Tech Environ, says in phase one the company will install grinders and shredders for five production lines. In phase two it will install pelletizing equipment. The main grades the company will handle include high-density polyethylene (HDPE), polypropylene (PP) and polycarbonate (PC) that will come primarily from the company’s existing customers.

Arnold says the facility will have several stages of development and should be operational by the summer of 2018. Roy Tech has set a goal of processing around 20,000 metric tons by the end of its first year of operation in Alabama.

Roy Tech established an existing branch office in Huntsville, Alabama, about 30 miles away from Grant, more than three years ago to be close to major auto production facilities.

The company is expected to ship its processed recycled plastic to its customers in Asia, including its own Shanghai operations.

Roy Tech Environ was formed around 20 years ago in Shanghai by CEO Lily Zhang and her brother. In a written statement, Zhang says three years ago, she realized the company should start sourcing plastic scrap directly from the United States because of the high quality of the material and ample quantity of the material available. The company has been shipping plastic scrap directly to its production plant in Shanghai.

The move to open a plastics recycling facility comes on the heels of China cracking down on baled plastic scrap being imported into the country. With quality specifications tightening, making it extremely difficult to ship unprocessed plastic scrap into China, the company decided to open a processing plant in the United States to guarantee its operations in Asia had enough material to meet their needs.

Liberty Steel restarts furnace at UK mill

United Kingdom-based Liberty House Group has reignited the furnace at its Speciality Steels operation in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, U.K. The official launch was in mid-February 2018, with the Prince of Wales igniting the furnace.

The restart of the electric arc furnace, which was mothballed by a previous owner earlier in the decade, is part of a multimillion-pound investment by the Liberty House Group into its Liberty Steel division.

The facility’s two 400,000-metric-tons-per-year furnaces will melt ferrous scrap into specialized steels for uses such as vehicle gearboxes and aircraft landing gear. Liberty indicates the furnace will play what it calls a pivotal role in Liberty’s overall Greensteel strategy, “designed to usher in a cleaner and more competitive era for the industry in the U.K.”

The steel mill has two furnaces. The first furnace, with an annual capacity of 400,000 metric tons, already has been restarted.

When Liberty purchased the steel mill in May 2017, it pledged to restart the furnace as part of an initial £20 million ($28 million) investment plan to expand the Speciality operation and create an additional 300 jobs.

The switch-on of the second furnace marks the culmination of five months engineering work by a team of 35 people to repair and upgrade the equipment. It will triple Liberty’s capacity to melt scrap into liquid steel at Rotherham, making the company the largest steel recycler in the U.K., with a capability to melt more than 1.2 million metric tons of steel per year.

It also moves the business closer to its target of installing 5 million metric tons of Greensteel production capacity within five years. In addition, restarting the second furnace will enable the Rotherham plant to double production on its adjacent bar mill to more than 400,000 metric tons per year.

Liberty Recycling, the company’s scrap recycling division, has operations in South Wales, the West Midlands, Yorkshire and Scotland. Liberty Metals Recycling also has a scrap collection and trans-shipment operation in Gdansk, Poland.

“Switching this furnace back on today, after it had lain idle for more than two years, is a pivotal moment in the revival of U.K. steelmaking, and we are very pleased His Royal Highness is able to share this hugely symbolic milestone with us,” says Sanjeev Gupta, founder and executive chairman of Liberty House Group. “The occasion makes a very powerful statement that steel does have a future in Britain, and that is very good news for the whole of our manufacturing and engineering sector.”

Lindner Recyclingtech GmbH, a provider of industrial stationary and mobile shredding equipment headquartered in Spittal, Austria, announced it has opened its new North American headquarters in Statesville, North Carolina.

In late 2017, the company completed the purchase and renovation of a 25,000-square-foot facility on a four-acre campus. The renovation coincided with the renaming of its U.S. subsidiary to Lindner Recyclingtech America. The new facility will help expand the Lindner parts inventory and service support team and will feature a fully operational customer demonstration and test lab facility.

“The investment we have made in our North American subsidiary is one to support our customer base as we continue to expand our market presence in the waste, plastics and paper recycling, and mobile shredding businesses,” Michael Lackner, managing director of Lindner GmbH, says. “With our new operational facility and added staff, we now have increased our inventory levels along with giving customers the opportunity to visit and run production tests as well as receive service and operation training. This investment gives Lindner the foundation to continue its success in the United States and Canada.”